Charles Louis Reilly, C.S.B., of Los Angeles,
California
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
The lecturer spoke substantially as follows:
Christ Jesus was equal to every problem of his times, and his works and teachings, when spiritually understood, make his followers equal to the demands of their times. And every true Christian can study the life and teachings of Christ Jesus and his disciples recorded in the Bible and live a better life, do better church work, and be a better citizen as a result of this study.
Tested answers to human problems we all face come gloriously to hand as we study the words and works of the prophets recorded in the Scriptures. What heart does not beat faster when we study the courageous and exciting victories over evil by the Biblical heroes? What individual is not made a deeper thinker, scholar, and reverent lover of God through searching the deep things of the Spirit which permeate the Scriptures?
There is nothing obsolete, impractical, or outmoded in the daily practical application of our study and spiritual understanding of the Bible. In truth, spirituality has always been the solution to the problems of the material world. The problems of mankind have always stemmed from materiality. Materialism has been the "pestilence that walketh in darkness" and the "destruction that wasteth at noonday" (Psalm 91) to the nations and peoples of this earth from the beginning of recorded time.
This is the message of Christian Science to humanity today: that the answer to humanity's problems is at hand, the answer to the threats, the destruction, the conflicts in the world.
Before we go into greater detail, let us look for a moment into the example of the remarkable prophet, Daniel. Daniel was a deeply spiritually-minded man. And Daniel was a very practical man. The book of Daniel in the Bible emphasizes these facts all the way through. Daniel was a talented executive, a fine administrator, an absolutely honest politician, and an uncompromising spiritual hero. In all of his lifework Daniel held his thinking close to God and was guided in every act by his earnest prayers to God.
Daniel served in a high political position under four successive kings. He did this at a time in history when those who served one king were usually removed or destroyed by his successor. Daniel was able to triumph over the most cunning and conniving plans of jealous politicians who strove to destroy him. He was able to receive and record spiritually inspired prophecy.
What was the element that stood out in Daniel's life and which made him so successful? It was prayer, confident, humble, expectant prayer — unceasing prayer. Daniel's prayers held his thought true to the one ever-present God, good, the all-governing divine Love. And in addition to his prayers, Daniel lived a life wholly consistent with these prayers. Then we must conclude that prayer and a life disciplined to the point of consistency with prayer were practical essentials in Daniel's successful life. Was this way of life limited to Daniel? Let us check this by examining the life of Paul the Apostle, after his conversion to Christianity.
Paul was a successful Christian. Through prayerful, practical Christianity, or understanding of the power of the Christ, Paul was able to make his own way in the world and to lead a life devoted to the betterment of mankind. Through prayer alone he was able to heal himself of the effects of beatings and stonings, to free himself from unjust imprisonment, and to overcome other physical and mental circumstances which threatened his destruction. He also overcame severe political, theological, and legal obstacles designed to keep him from doing his work. He was a great teacher, preacher, and healer. Paul founded and established Christian churches in much of the known world of his day.
The writings of Paul show how his entire lifework, after his conversion to Christianity, was, like Daniel's, accomplished through prayer and spiritual understanding, and a life spiritually consistent with his prayerful understanding of God. We know Paul, not because of his peerless personal life of spiritual consistency, but largely because of the inevitable results stemming from his spiritually consistent life.
Let us pause here for a moment and consider a few important characteristics which these life examples point up strongly. Prayer, linking human consciousness to the uplifting force of Spirit, God, gave Daniel and Paul great inward peace. But prayer also gave these two great men direction in life and the power to act with wisdom and courage. And prayer enabled the apostle Paul and the prophet Daniel to meet through the power of God every contingency posed by their daily life.
Then the prayers of Daniel and
Paul must bear closer examination. If prayer could be so effective in the
experience of two characters selected at random in Bible history, it is only
logical to assume that prayer can be effectual in everybody's experience —
yours and mine. The Apostle James declared from his practical experience (James
5:16), "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."
And now let us consider again the greatest example of all, the Master, Christ Jesus. In a period of only three years, Jesus accomplished through practical prayer a work for all time. During his short ministry Jesus preached to thousands of people, taught many students, healed vast multitudes of all manner of ills, and triumphed over malicious hatred, death, and the grave.
Jesus prayed in the wilderness and found the guidance for his unparalleled career. He sometimes spent all night in prayer before and after important events. He prayed for his disciples. He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane before his crucifixion. He prayed on the cross and before his ascension. There is every evidence to show that Jesus prayed daily and hourly regarding every circumstance of his life and work and urged and taught his disciples to pray.
The seventeenth chapter of John is an object-lesson in prayer by Christ Jesus. After acknowledging the Father, God, Jesus opens his prayer with the words (John 17:1), "Glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee." Later in the chapter Jesus prays especially for his disciples. He prays that they be not taken away from their human responsibilities, but that they be protected from evil. He prays that they may be sanctified through the word of truth. Then Jesus shows how he has found his own sanctification, his purity and holy dedication to his work. And then Jesus prays for the unity with the Father of all who receive and use the word of truth which he lived and taught. The chapter closes with a glorious acknowledgment of the love God imparts to those who follow the Christ, Truth (John 17:25,26), "O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." We can safely say that, through unceasing prayer, Christ Jesus achieved a full salvation and revealed God's righteous government.
Isn't it evidence of something missing in our study of the Scriptures today that Christians should turn to some source other than prayer for their answers to the little and big problems of daily life? What a need we have that our holders of public office should honor those offices with humble and understanding prayer to the one God. And what a need there is for all of us to seek prayerfully God's government in human affairs.
What is missing in the prayers of the people of the nations today? Well, that seems like a big question, doesn't it? But it is a question replete with answers. A study of the references to prayer throughout the Bible reveals facts which should jar any individual out of complacency and materialism. The Sermon on the Mount by Christ Jesus covers a large number of basic rules for prayer. One of Jesus' rules is (Matt. 6:7), "When ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do." Later Jesus declares (Matt. 21:22), "All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."
How not to pray is also set forth in the Bible in a number of places. For instance, James tells us (James 4:3), "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts."
It is wise always to heed the examples, teachings, and admonitions of experts in all branches of study we wish to pursue. Certainly this is important in the question of prayer. We have touched briefly on the subject itself in referring to such experts as Paul, Daniel, and the Master, Christ Jesus. Let us now refer to a great modern expert. There could be no more exact choice in this age than Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science.
Mrs. Eddy's use of prayer and her teachings on the subject of Christian Science have borne fruit covering a range of practical experience so vast that it defies description. We shall touch upon it, however.
Mrs. Eddy was instantly healed of a condition believed to be fatal, resulting from an accident. Her healing came by way of the spiritual illumination of the simple account of the healing by Jesus of the palsied man recorded in the beginning of the ninth chapter of the book of Matthew. Wonderful as her healing was, it was only incidental to the spiritual illumination which produced it. This spiritual illumination led on to the discovery and the explanation of the scientific laws and rules of understanding prayer — Christianly scientific prayer. This Christianly scientific prayer unfolded through pure revelation from God, infinite Mind and Love. It revealed the Christ Science — the Science of God and man.
Let me read to you some of the elements of prayer in Christian Science as set forth in Mrs. Eddy's book "No and Yes" (39:17-24): "True prayer is not asking God for love; it is learning to love, and to include all mankind in one affection. Prayer is the utilization of the love wherewith He loves us. Prayer begets an awakened desire to be and to do good. It makes new and scientific discoveries of God, of His goodness and power. It shows us more clearly than we saw before, what we already have and are; and most of all, it shows us what God is."
The revelation of the Christ Science to Mrs. Eddy was not an abstract experience. It took work, deeply consecrated and dedicated study of the Scriptures in the light of the revelation. This work entailed self-discipline and self-government of the noblest kind.
Let us read a brief account of the experience as Mrs. Eddy relates it in her book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (109:16-22), "I knew the Principle of all harmonious Mind-action to be God, and that cures were produced in primitive Christian healing by holy, uplifting faith; but I must know the Science of this healing, and I won my way to absolute conclusions through divine revelation, reason, and demonstration."
Here is a marvel of Christian discipline or discipleship! Mrs. Eddy was not satisfied to soar in an abstract realm, but stayed with the revelation until it logically and scientifically proved its way, both to reason and in practical healing demonstration. She tested her own ability to heal through the Christ Science and then her ability to teach others to heal. Then she wrote the Christian Science textbook from which we have just quoted.
The chapter on Prayer, which is the first chapter in Science and Health, separates prayer from mental science, so called. It separates prayer from drugless healing and from ritual and dogma. It shows that prayer must lead to a life consistent with prayer and it shows that prayer can bring about a life regenerated and perfected under God's government. Indeed, the chapter on Prayer opens the way to salvation through Christ.
Mrs. Eddy did not retire after writing Science and Health, but went on to establish the Church of Christ, Scientist. Not only did she discover Christian Science through revelation, but she founded the movement based upon this discovery. Thus she is both Discoverer and Founder as well as Leader.
In founding the Christian Science movement, Mrs. Eddy wrote the Manual of The Mother Church, established the church services and the order of these services. These include the Sunday services and the Wednesday testimony meetings. She established the Christian Science Sunday School and its exercises for the instruction of the pupils. She established The Christian Science Publishing Society and its publications, and founded and named each one, including The Christian Science Monitor. She established an important means of protecting the Cause of Christian Science when she provided for the Committee on Publication, and she established a world-wide means of reaching the inquirer and the spiritually hungry in founding the Board of Lectureship. She provided for the public practice of Christian Science and for Christian Science nurses. She provided the ways and means for the promotion and extension of Christian Science.
Much of what Mrs. Eddy did, she did in the face of extreme opposition. The opposition was both organized and willfully directed, and general. But, through her prayerful understanding of God, she was able to go forward untouched by the opposition. Mrs. Eddy was made firmer in her understanding of divine Love by facing up to and melting away the resistance which arose up against the Christ, Truth, she had discovered.
One thing that sometimes causes people to misunderstand and misinterpret Christian Science is the fact that it must be understood and practiced on the basis of its divine Principle, God, before one can speak authoritatively regarding it. Misconceptions imposed upon the public regarding Christian Science invariably arise from those who do not understand it and cannot demonstrate it.
Prayer in Christian Science requires an absolute turning to God as the source of all reality and of all good. Prayer then becomes the key to the kingdom of heaven here and now as defined by Christ Jesus in the Bible (Luke 17:20,21), "When he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you."
Prayer in Christian Science reveals the pathway to the kingdom of God within the reach of each true lover of God. Prayer causes the student of this Science to put it teachings into practice and this results in healing, in supply, in clear intuition, and in direct guidance. But again, this very praying in Christian Science cannot be described in terms of philosophical abstractions, psychological reflexes, suggestion, or hypnotism. Prayer in Christian Science, turns us away from the human mind and human theories to the divine Mind, or God. It proves practical God's action governing man and renders impossible the willful or subtle influence of one human mind over another. Prayer in Christian Science finds spiritual intuition and guidance from the pure Mind that is God, Spirit; and this is the absolute opposite of clairvoyance or thought transference. Such prayer demands an understanding of the one God as infinite good, as the creator of all, from the infinitesimal all the way to the infinite.
Are there logical footsteps in the prayer of understanding? Indeed there are. We have mentioned Christian discipline or discipleship and true self-government as displayed by those who have won their way in history through prayer. In this connection, can we not agree that in order to succeed or progress, to learn or to practice or perform anything, the will to do must precede the power to act and the two must be adhered to tenaciously?
Paul and Daniel, under circumstances that seemed hopeless, turned defeat into victory and proved that God is the only real power and law. They proved what they understood again and again over a period of many years.
Christ Jesus turned his crucifixion into a triumph over death and the grave! He did this in accord with the rules he had set forth in his teachings and parables. He proved that God is the only real power and law. He proved this in the face of organized opposition and without one failure on his part! He taught his followers to prove this law of God and rebuked any failure on their part.
Christian Science today demonstrates the same Christly laws practiced by Christ Jesus. It does this by adhering strictly to Jesus' teachings. Christian Science does not deify Jesus, but it does recognize the Christ which Jesus taught and practiced as that which reveals the nature of God and His idea, man. Beyond all other systems, Christian Science honors Christ Jesus because it reveres his perfect manifestation or demonstration of the nature, presence, and power of God. Jesus always honored God as his Father. Jesus declared that God is our Father — yours and mine. In a message he gave to his precious disciple Mary, he said (John 20:17), "Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." Also we must remember it was Jesus who taught us to pray (Matt. 6:9), "Our Father which art in heaven."
John, the beloved disciple, declared that we all are the sons of God. We prove this to the extent that we bring forth the spiritual nature of God in our lives. These are John's words (I John 3:1-3): "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure."
Then it is absolutely essential that we understand God. Do we have an exact definition of God in Christian Science? Indeed we do. From beginning to end, Science and Health is full of passages describing the thought and nature of God. Let me quote this definition from page 587. It reads, "God. The great I am; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence." Now we do not think of this definition as abstract, or quote it as a ritual, but rather we think of it as definitive of the infinite presence and power of the qualities expressed in it. For God to be All, He not only must be All as source or origin, but must create all.
Source, origin, or cause must have its expression in effect, outcome, or manifestation. An effectless cause is no cause. An infinite Mind or God, without manifestation, is no mind. On the other hand, if God is infinite and therefore All, there is no place for an opposite or negation of God, good, in all of His infinitude, is there?
Thus we find man and the universe as the expression of the infinite God — the unfoldment of the great I AM. For in the great I AM is the source of all identity, of all individuality. Then as we turn to God in prayer we know we are turning to the great I AM and that no evil claim and no willful claim of an I am apart from God can stand in our experience. Didn't Daniel find a wonderful deliverance from the claim of willful and evil egos or minds many in his humble turning to God, the great I AM, which delivered him from the lions' den?
If God is infinite, and He is, then in turning to the infinite in prayer, we are turning to the "all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal Principle," the origin and source of all good. As we pray, we seek the one Mind or consciousness, the source of all ideas, of all intelligence. When we pray, we abide in the presence of Soul, the identifying intelligence of all true being, the source of purity, the one Mind unfolding all spiritual discernment and annihilating mortal sense and sensuality.
Prayer turns us to Spirit, God, the only substance, the animating and life-giving power of being, forever unfolding and defining all individuality. Turning to God in prayer, we seek the source and fountain of life in God who is Life. We find in prayer the reality, justice, and Science of all that has real existence in Truth. And in prayer we find God as Love — the infinite glorious out-pouring source of all good.
One could expand upon these realities endlessly. They are infinite in substance. All that mankind truly needs, it can find in God. Why? Because man is the very expression, the outcome, the climax of God's creation.
Do we turn in prayer to hide from problems, to escape from what cynical materialism calls realities? Not by any means. But if the terrifying images presented by what is visible to the material senses are real, they deny, by their seeming existence, the presence and power of God. Then one has to choose between surrendering to that which denies God or finding in God the power which overcomes the seeming reality of material problems. Mortals sometimes rationalize this choice by surrendering to problems on the ground that they represent the will of God.
What do the problems of life represent? They represent the same thing that mistakes in mathematics represent. A mistake in mathematics has no principle, no source, no substance, no reality. It is a lie about a fact — a false concept about a reality. From the standpoint of the facts of mathematics a mistake is absolutely unreal, and must be proved so by the operation of mathematical law.
The numbers and symbols of mathematics are only agreed outward symbols or hieroglyphs, if you will, which express mathematical law when rightly governed and unreal or mistaken belief when wrongly governed.
And this is analogous to the way prayer reaches outward human circumstances in the coincidence of the human and divine. Jesus restored to the visible Lazarus the divinely true evidence of his life in God, divine Life. This gave the human Lazarus a new lease on life, and it was beyond doubt a progressive step spiritually for him.
Mrs. Eddy declares in the textbook (Science and Health, p. 210:11-16), "Knowing that Soul and its attributes were forever manifested through man, the Master healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, feet to the lame, thus bringing to light the scientific action of the divine Mind on human minds and bodies and giving a better understanding of Soul and salvation."
In the coincidence of the human and divine we behold the omnipresence of God, through healing and regeneration. Job says (Job 19:26), "Yet in my flesh shall I see God."
Obviously, from the standpoint of Spirit's allness, matter is not what it appears to be, and has no genuine place. Through the scientific understanding of God, Jesus set aside the seeming force and reality of matter. He walked on the water, entered the closed room, restored a withered arm, and vanished in the ascension without a trace for materialism to fasten upon.
Here then is the nature of prayer — to find in pure communion with the one God, the nature of God and His idea, man. In true prayer we are lifted into glimpses of the realities of being. As we pray, we are enabled to see the sins, the materiality, which clog our progress Spiritward, and to shed them in the glow of our real selfhood as God's child. The only way sin can be conquered is by uncovering the sin and overcoming it in the redeeming reality of the Christ, God's true idea.
What is original sin? Theology has many theories, doctrines, and dogmas on the subject, but isn't original sin the belief that man lives outside of the infinite? Isn't original sin the sense of separation from God? And what kind of atonement can compare with the prayerful recognition of the Apostle John's words that "now are we the sons of God"? True atonement is the establishment of our at-one-ment with God! Christ Jesus said (John 10:30) "I and my Father are one."
Prayer then takes work, self-discipline, self-government under God. In a world crying for just, honest, and true government, recognizing and defending each individual's right of freedom, there is available today the Christianly scientific prayer for which humanity is crying.
Where does government begin? It begins with God. No governing power reposed in rulers, dictators, tyrants can ever bring true government to nations or individuals. No idolizing of an individual holding a governing office can ever accomplish lasting good for the world. Government, of the people, by the people, and for the people, can never become an established fact on a secure basis, except as it arises from a people self-disciplined in the art of self-government under God.
Mrs. Eddy writes in her book, "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 80:16), "Unconstitutional and unjust coercive legislation and laws, infringing individual rights, must be 'of few days, and full of trouble.' The vox populi, through the providence of God, promotes and impels all true reform; and, at the best time, will redress wrongs and rectify injustice. Tyranny can thrive but feebly under our Government. God reigns, and will 'turn and overturn' until right is found supreme."
Jesus and his disciples demonstrated a higher ideal of self-government in the midst of corruption and a theological and political power struggle for control of the state. Jesus' crucifixion was the result of political expediency yielding to political theology and its tyranny, but Jesus turned it, through prayer, into an everlasting victory.
Daniel demonstrated self-government under God. His governing talents were remarkably recognized in his age and time. But tyrannous elements of Daniel's political surroundings imposed upon him great difficulty. His triumphs — including deliverance from the lions' den — proved the rightness of Daniel's knowledge of God as the source of all true government.
Paul accomplished single handedly, in the face of great opposition, the founding of Christian churches throughout a large part of the known world of his day. And Paul did this work through prayerful recognition of God's governing power. The same laws of God which enabled Paul to demonstrate God's government are ours to understand and use today.
Let me tell you how a young man found the way to progress in life through Christianly scientific prayer. He was not a Christian Scientist, but he liked what little he knew about it. He did a little desultory reading from the Christian Science periodicals. But he was busy — oh so busy! — or so he thought. He was a veteran of the last war. He was married. He had a busy job — full time — at night — and he was attending college all day. So he wasn't getting eight hours of sleep and according to human theory had reason to become fatigued; dog tired as the saying goes. Misery loves company and so he talked about his fatigue with friends at work. Mrs. Eddy has a most interesting three word sentence in Science and Health which reads (p. 188), "Error rehearses error." Our young man rehearsed the fatigue story and the better he rehearsed it, the better he performed it.
Of course, the situation seemed very real to our friend. One of his fellow workers had a relative who was a solid working Christian Scientist. This Christian Scientist found great help in his daily life through study of the weekly Lesson-Sermon. This Lesson-Sermon is studied daily by Christian Scientists and is read in our churches on Sunday. The fellow worker suggested that our friend might try reading the Christian Science Lesson-Sermon as an aid toward meeting the fatigue. Our young friend decided to do so. In order to read the lesson, he had to get up a little earlier and so lose some of his precious sleep!
But he tried it. And by reading the Lesson-Sermon, he learned more about prayer. He learned to love the Bible. He became acquainted with "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" and learned to love it and to love the way it made the Bible an open book — a daily textbook. And, of course, the fatigue disappeared! It just wasn't there any more. Think of it! With more work added to each day and less sleep available, he was rested and able to do both his job and his college work better. His marks went up and he graduated with excellent grades. By the time he graduated, he had overcome nearsightedness through Christian Science and had abandoned his eyeglasses!
The fact that divine help is available even under the most severe fatigue is brought out in Science and Health where Mrs. Eddy declares (p. 385): "It is proverbial that Florence Nightingale and other philanthropists engaged in humane labors have been able to undergo without sinking fatigues and exposures which ordinary people could not endure. The explanation lies in the support which they derived from the divine law, rising above the human. The spiritual demand, quelling the material, supplies energy and endurance surpassing all other aids, and forestalls the penalty which our beliefs would attach to our best deeds."
Now let us consider another case. A Christian Science practitioner was called to take over a case which was believed to be a critical condition of pneumonia. There was a Christian Science nurse assisting the patient. The trouble became aggravated and it was necessary for the practitioner to go to the bedside of the patient, as it seemed touch and go as to whether the patient would survive, according to the evidence presented by the senses.
The practitioner had been working in his prayer for the patient with the Lord's Prayer. And an important point from the Lord's Prayer was the sentence (Matt. 6:13), "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." You see, in Christian Science we are convinced from Bible evidence both in the teachings and the healings recorded therein, and from the revelation of Christian Science, that God does not know evil.
We are convinced that evil has no God-given existence, no God-established reality. We are convinced that God, good, is infinite, real, true, omnipresent, omniactive, omniscient, and omnipotent. We know that regardless of any evidence to the contrary, all that is unlike God must be — is — unreal, untrue, an illusion.
We know that even as mathematical error is unreal and untrue — a lie or mistaken sense about a mathematical fact — even so errors of every sort are lies about spiritual truths, spiritual facts, and their whole, healthy, and harmonious effects.
The practitioner needed to see the spiritual fact which would deliver him and the patient from the temptation to assume that the disease was real and true, and also deliver the patient from the evil condition, regardless of its possible medical name.
In the purity of prayer, or exact scientific approach to the problem, it was uncovered that human hatred against the Christ as revealed in Christian Science needed to be handled. By handled we mean taken into account, denied, and spiritually corrected with the God-given facts of being.
At this point the physical appearance was that of complete unconsciousness, with no evidence of life. But as the love of God poured into the consciousness of the practitioner, it became clear that human hate had no power to impose upon any one of God's children, no power to pass the boundaries of its own unreality. The presence of God flooded the atmosphere of the sickroom, the patient fell into a normal sleep and awoke healed. There was no recuperation period. The very next day the ex-patient, healed, whole, and happy, dressed herself and went about her duties and came to the practitioner's office for a short visit. In this case a scientifically Christian treatment had resulted in a scientific Christian healing through prayer.
In this healing the phrase in the Lord's Prayer (Matt. 6:13), "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil," had been demonstrated in its spiritual sense given by Mrs. Eddy on page 17 of the textbook, "And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death."
What today's world needs is understanding prayer. The time must come when such prayer will make it impossible for anyone to wish to cause war and bring nuclear destruction to the world. But these things must be brought about through a great rise in the spiritual level of mankind, which in turn will bring about a rise in the moral, ethical, and humanitarian values of the world.
Mrs. Eddy tells us in her book, "Unity of Good" (pp. 35 and 36), "The material atom is an outlined falsity of consciousness, which can gather additional evidence of consciousness and life only as it adds lie to lie." The reference continues, "From the beginning this lie was the false witness against the fact that Spirit is All, beside which there is no other existence. The use of a lie is that it unwittingly confirms Truth, when handled by Christian Science, which reverses false testimony and gains a knowledge of God from opposite facts, or phenomena."
If the world seems on the verge of destruction, and human politics seem at a discouraging and futile level, this is not as bad for you as you might think. It will force you and me to turn from mere human comfortableness and cause us to "go all out" for the spiritual unfoldment you and I — and the world — need.
Abraham Lincoln knew some of these things. Listen to a partial quote from his farewell to his friends at Springfield as he left to take up his presidential duties (Lincoln's Address, February 11, 1861, at Springfield, Illinois), "Without the assistance of that Divine Being, I cannot succeed. With that assistance, I can not fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well."
Oh, may that spirit, guided by Christian Science, pervade the human consciousness and govern modern civilization. A rocket ride through space may be exciting and show the excellence of modern invention, but what can compare to an individual orbiting on the wings of understanding prayer! The uplifting example of that individual brings inspiration to mankind and helps to save the world in these days of tribulation.
A great and happy responsibility rests on you and me. But we are the ones who by our earnest prayers will reap the first fruits and win our Master's benediction (Matt. 25:21), "Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord." Would you live in that joy? These words of Mrs. Eddy point the way (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 118), "Be of good cheer; the warfare with one's self is grand; it gives one plenty of employment, and the divine Principle worketh with you, — and obedience crowns persistent effort with everlasting victory."
[Delivered circa 1962-1963.]